Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

O.K., reader, before we go any further, let’s save time. “Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning” is the fourth theatrical installment of an action franchise that has probably run its course. (Full disclosure: I have not seen previous entries.) The movie’s top-billed stars are Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, long-in-the-tooth attendees of the “Expendables 2” pugilist convention. If the above is of no interest, stop reading.

Now let’s get into it. Mr. Van Damme and Mr. Lundgren barely appear here, mainly for climactic punch-outs. The film is actually a showcase for the comparative newcomer Scott Adkins, playing a technologically enhanced strongman in Louisiana haunted by memories of his murdered family — memories surgically implanted by government evildoers — and confronting his creators, as well as a small army of fighters like himself.

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Scott Adkins, technologically enhanced.Credit
Magnet Releasing

Forget the recycled “Total Recall” conceits. Mr. Adkins’s acting has improved since “El Gringo,” a Tex-Mex shoot-’em-up released in May as part of the B-film series After Dark Action. And his charisma certainly exceeds that of his co-stars. But Mr. Adkins, a Briton, has to drop his Jason-Statham-like line readings.

The director is John Hyams, the man behind After Dark Action’s “Dragon Eyes.” He too advances, generating a feverish ferocity on a minimal budget. If only his script (written with others) were more thought-provoking. Nevertheless, this bloody wallow in sweat, guns and fisticuffs — for those who swing that way — delivers.